A Mrs. Burrows recalls her labor in the fields when she was a young girl:

In the very short schooling that I obtained, I learnt neither grammar nor writing. On the day that I was eight years of age, I left school, and began to work fourteen hours a day in the fields, with from forty to fifty other children of whom, even at that early age, I was the eldest. We were followed all day long by an old man carrying a whip in his hand which he did not forget to use. A great many of the, children were only five years of age. You will think that I am exaggerating, but I am not; it is as true as the Gospel. Thirty-five years ago is the time I speak of, and the place, Croyland...